๑♡My Dearest Bliss - An AWAE/Shirbert Story♡⁠๑

Chapter Seventeen

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•
Anne opened her eyes and looked around dazedly, confused at her new surroundings. After a few seconds, she remembered the events of yesterday and sat herself up straight, being careful not to wake Diana beside her who was still sleeping. She picked up her watch from the bedside - it read 7:43am, which was quite early seeing as breakfast would be served at 9.

Regardless, she tiptoed out of bed she began to get ready. Before doing anything else, however, she walked up to the window and smiled as she looked around to see snow dusted trees and a blanket of glistening diamonds under the blinding winter sun.
~
Just as she finished changing a while later, she heard footsteps outside of the door of her room, followed by the sound of a slip of paper sliding under the crack of it.

Walking over, she cautiously picked it up and examined it.

'Good morning Carrots'
She smiled and opened the door, revealing a happy Gilbert leaning on the wall in front of her, wearing his usual white shirt and suspenders.

"Good morning back to you. And when did you get permission to call me carrots?"

"Well then you can hit my head with a slate again, I don't mind - on one condition anyways."

"And what condition is that?"

"Well you see, I recall asking a certain lady last night if she would accept a humble request of mine to have tea with her today, I was wondering to see if that offer still stands?"

"..."
She stayed silent a bit - not because she didn't want to, but because Charlottetown was still ever so close to Avonlea. If anyone they knew even vaguely was to be there at the time and see the two walking hand in hand or having tea together chaos was inevitable. Nevertheless, she smiled and replied to the nervous man in front of her.

"It does. But we'd have to not take so long, the others still expect us to help with setting up the soirée."

"How about 1pm?"

"Perfect - now you should probably leave before Diana wakes up."

The two chuckled and he nodded before closing the door. To Anne's surprise however, she turned around only to see Diana sat up in bed, eyeing the redhead with a smirk.
"Tea with Mr Blythe at One huh?"

"Oh hush your mouth, when did you even get up?"

"Just now, but long enough to hear your conversation with loverboy."

"Oh so that's what you're calling him now?" Anne questioned her friend, who had already gotten out of bed and was now behind the changing screen.

"Oh believe me I'm not the only one who talks about you two, you'd have no idea."

"I think I'd rather have no idea too. Now hurry so we can go down to breakfast!"

"Ooh if we're early we can have our pick on what to eat before the others arrive! Alright I'm ready Anne, let's go then"
•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

Breakfast had come and gone smoothly. As they all chatted together, Anne took a moment to look around and couldn't help but feel so grateful - she was loved, she had love, she had friendships, she had comfort, and most of all, she knew that she had such a full life ahead of her.

The young friends were now all in the parlour, telling stories and playing cards. While the others weren't noticing, Gilbert lightly nudged Anne and showed her the time - it was 12:50, meaning the two were due to leave soon, though they hadn't told anyone and weren't planning to. Anne cleared her throat and spoke hastily.